131 replies to this topic

[Sarlic]

Can you put up a link?  I'm not seeing it.

[Sarlic]

Found it.

 

http://www.amazon.co...ords=Roku Store

[seahorsejl]

Yep, that is the one. Mine is on order

[dnelms]

Ordered mine last night. Out of town this weekend, so decided that the free shipping would be OK and give a spin next week.

[scyber]

I want to buy one, but I'm concerned about the fact that the Roku 3 networking specs list its ethernet port speed at 10/100 Base-T. I understand why the Roku 2 XS is 10/100 Base-T, but why on earth doesn't the new Roku 3 have a Gigabit port? I hope the Roku site is incorrectly listing the speed, because that might be a deal killer for me

 

 

Out of curiousity, why would you need gigabit speed on the roku?    The only possible use I can think of would be transferring content to an attached usb drive, but we are on the Plex forum so I assume most people have their content on their plex server   I can't think of any other use that would saturate a 100mbit connection.

[roraniel]

It's there, just not coming up in the search yet. You need to go to the second page of the Roku Amazon store I believe.

Thanks!!! Should be here Friday.

[schuyler]

I use a Synology DS413J which doesn't have a fast enough CPU to transcode large files.  Right now i run Plex on MacBook w/ a broken screen hooked up to my home theater.  Will this new Roku box be able to handle direct playback, or is that depending a lot on file time.  I mostly have 720/1080p files.

 

-Will

 

I doubt it, I haven't read anything that suggests they've added support for additional containers/codecs.

[Sarlic]

Schuyler -- the issue with direct playback of MKVs -- would you consider that a bug of some kind or a container/codec issue?  Or is it just a hardware issue?

[schuyler]

Schuyler -- the issue with direct playback of MKVs -- would you consider that a bug of some kind or a container/codec issue?  Or is it just a hardware issue?

 

Well, whatever is going wrong is happening inside the Roku video player, which is a black box to me. But if you don't mind speculation...

 

It's not a hardware issue. The same MKV will (generally) play fine using the Roku USB channel. It only crashes when the MKV is played over HTTP. And it crashes whether it's a PMS sending the file or if you have the Roku request an MKV from an Apache web server or a service like Dropbox. So it seems like a bug in the Roku firmware about how MKV playback is handled over HTTP.

[Sarlic]

Gotcha, thanks.  (Sorry, I don't mean to hijack the Roku 3 thread with this issue.)  Any sense as to whether or not the Roku peeps are aware of the problem and could potentially address it in the firmware at some point?

[dogzipp]

Not having gigabit is not an issue. Those custom CPUs are so customized for video decoding, they suck on everything else, network speed being one of them. Even with a 100MB lan, you will rarely see it maxed out. It probable does around 40mb at max.

 

Same is with AppleTV, Popcorn, WD and other Rokus. Great for playback, bad for everything else (including a slow UI)

[bonyboy]

Has Roku said when they will roll out the new UI to the older models?  I have a XS and would love to use it.

[scyber]

Has Roku said when they will roll out the new UI to the older models?  I have a XS and would love to use it.

 

They said in May. 

[timgonzales]

Apparently the Roku 3 CPU is 5 times faster than the one inside a Roku 2 XS. Wonder what means as far as Plex UI enhancements and direct play goes.

 

 

Has Roku said when they will roll out the new UI to the older models?  I have a XS and would love to use it.

 

Everywhere I've read mentions sometime in April/May.

[Sarlic]

That's what I'm most excited about Tim.  However, since Schuyler says the direct play back (at least with MKV's) is primarily a firmware issue, there's no guarantee that the beefier CPU will make a difference.

[schuyler]

Yeah, the better CPU is without a doubt a Good Thing, but in the short term all I'd expect to see as a result is for the UI to be a bit snappier. And as of now, the new UI is limited to the Roku screens, not channels. So you'll get a much more modern home screen and greatly enhanced search features (as demoed on the Roku blog). I can only assume that that will change over time as the new SDK is made available to channels.

 

Depending on which Roku page you read, the firmware will out to Roku 2s in either April or May. Not sure which page has the right date. :]

[digitalhome]

However, since Schuyler says the direct play back (at least with MKV's) is primarily a firmware issue, there's no guarantee that the beefier CPU will make a difference.

 

Disappointing if true. I want to invest in such a device 1080p Plex playback (got rid of my ATV 2)  so I was hoping that this Roku 3 or the NetGear Prime would be it.

[Sarlic]

Actually I'm encouraged, I think -- if the MKV playback is merely a firmware issue, we just need to get Roku to address it.  I'd rather it be firmware related than hardware related.  Firmware can be fixed.  Hardware means a new unit.

 

The question is 1) does Roku know this is an issue, and 2) do they care/intend to address it?   If not, who do we start contacting about this?

[JEscHT]

Has Roku said when they will roll out the new UI to the older models?  I have a XS and would love to use it.

I read in the article that it would be coming to the other models in April.

[timgonzales]

Disappointing if true. I want to invest in such a device 1080p Plex playback (got rid of my ATV 2)  so I was hoping that this Roku 3 or the NetGear Prime would be it.

 

The Roku 3 is capable of 1080p Plex playback though?